Gödel, Kurt

Gödel, Kurt

(gö`dəl), 1906–78, American mathematician and logician, b. Brünn (now Brno, Czech Republic), grad. Univ. of Vienna (Ph.D., 1930). He came to the United States in 1940 and was naturalized in 1948. He was a member of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, until 1953, when he became professor of mathematics at Princeton. He is best known for his work in mathematical logic, particularly for his theorem (1931) stating that the various branches of mathematics are based in part on propositions that are not provable within the system itself, although they may be proved by means of logical (metamathematical) systems external to mathematics. Gödel shared the 1951 Albert Einstein Award for achievement in the natural sciences with Julian Schwinger, Harvard mathematical physicist. His writings include Foundations of Mathematics (1969).

Gödel, Kurt

Born Apr. 28, 1906, in Brünn (Brno). Austrian logician and mathematician; assistant professor at the University of Vienna from 1933 to 1938. Emigrated to the USA in 1940. Since 1953 he has been a professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His principal works are in the field of mathematical logic and set theory.

REFERENCES

Godel, Kurt (Friedrich)

(1906–78) mathematician/logician; born in Brunn, Austria-Hungary (now Brno, Czechoslovakia). He studied and taught in Vienna; starting in 1933 he began an association with the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton but he did not immigrate to the U.S.A. until 1940. He stimulated a great deal of significant work in mathematical logic as well as in set theory and general relativity. In 1931 he propounded one of the most important theorems in modern mathematics, Godel's proof: simply stated, in any formal system of mathematics there must be some formally undecidable, or logically uncertain, elements. Personally idiosyncratic and reclusive, he was the first recipient of the International Congress of Mathematicians' Einstein Award (1951) and was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

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